The Jerome A. Chazen Institute for Global Business
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Global Consulting Projects
The mission of Chazen Institute global experiences is to develop future leaders with a global mindset and to expose students to new business cultures, environments and challenges. Global Consulting Projects encourage Columbia Business School MBA students to gain hands-on knowledge of international management by advising a sponsor company on a semester-long global challenge.
How it works
The Chazen Institute sources various projects from across industries. Students are also welcome to propose or source their own opportunities targeting their learning goals and interests.
Students work on projects throughout the fall or spring semester as an Independent Study course. Teams of 3-4 students will bring a diverse set of skills and backgrounds to the project. If travel is appropriate, students travel in January for fall projects, and March for spring projects.
For the Fall 2018 semester, Chazen is partnering with Citi Ventures to source three projects for students to work on and to ensure students have the support they need throughout the projects. Student teams will match with internal Citi teams to partner on the projects. Each team is assigned a Citi Mentor/Project Manager who guides and coaches the team.
Teams will meet virtually or in-person on a weekly basis with their mentor, and then will present their findings and recommendations at the mid-point and end of the semester to senior Citi stakeholders and the sponsors. Expect to spend 7-10 hours per week on each project.
Fall 2018 projects
Citibanamex - Small & Medium Enterprises
Organizational Overview
The SME (small medium enterprise) area has the objective to increase the market share, generate profits to Citi and improve the SME customers experience by the adequate product offers and identify changes that improve or assure the growth of SME portfolios. We have 400,000 clients in the SME segment with different products necessities such as checking accounts, lines of credit, insurances, investments, etc. The actual size of the portfolio is $4.4 million for Liabilities and $1.6 million for the credit portfolio.
Project Description and Expected Outcomes
The Salesforce applicative contains a CRM to help the sales executives to manage the relationship with the clients. It has a detailed agenda that can be review by the supervisor in order to obtain productivity of the executive. It developed a front tent for the capture of the credit application in order to reduce the rate of application returns. We want to review all the components of this application and know how the sales executive uses the different tools to enrich the use and the look and feel of the different views.
Objectives & Deliverables:
Knowledge in SME business, financial backgrounds and identify process opportunities.
The SME (small medium enterprise) area has the objective to increase the market share, generate profits to Citi and improve the SME customers experience by the adequate product offers and identify changes that improve or assure the growth of SME portfolios. We have 400,000 clients in the SME segment with different products necessities such as checking accounts, lines of credit, insurances, investments, etc. The actual size of the portfolio is $4.4 million for Liabilities and $1.6 million for the credit portfolio.
Project Description and Expected Outcomes
The Salesforce applicative contains a CRM to help the sales executives to manage the relationship with the clients. It has a detailed agenda that can be review by the supervisor in order to obtain productivity of the executive. It developed a front tent for the capture of the credit application in order to reduce the rate of application returns. We want to review all the components of this application and know how the sales executive uses the different tools to enrich the use and the look and feel of the different views.
Objectives & Deliverables:
- Increase the use of the application.
- Identify new functionalities.
- Different ways to measure the uses of the application.
- Search and explode all the capabilities of the application.
Knowledge in SME business, financial backgrounds and identify process opportunities.
Citibanamex - Technology & Digital Engineering
Organizational Overview
Industry: Banking
Organization: We support the Bank’s digital transformation Digital Engineering Factory (DEF)
Description: Digital Engineering Factory
The current CitiBanamex architecture has multiple layers of middleware, and in the short term API architecture will need to leverage them. However, the API Factory will enable the simplification of these middleware layers through system APIs (target state Architecture).
Goals:
Service: We are a service technological internal provider in charge of developing APIs to internal areas within the bank. We work under agile culture.
Project Description and Expected Outcomes
Context: Most of the people, who work in the DEF, are external workers provided by several providers; these people are usually Software Architectures, developers, Scrum Masters among others. The Citi policy indicates that when the internal areas have outsourced human resources, the area (DEF) is responsible for the onboarding process and not the Bank’s human resources area.
Internal Area: Digital Engineering Factory / Organizational Development
Onboarding/Off boarding processes: When we talk about the Onboarding/Off-boarding processes, we are talking about helping the new worker to understand internal processes to develop her/his job:
Several issues within our organizational development.
Issues:
We would like the Columbia MBA’s team to develop a strategy or organizational model that help us to define the internal organizational structure, stablish the onboarding –Off boarding processes, roles, create controls and processes that can be easily automated.
Deliverables:
Industry: Banking
Organization: We support the Bank’s digital transformation Digital Engineering Factory (DEF)
Description: Digital Engineering Factory
The current CitiBanamex architecture has multiple layers of middleware, and in the short term API architecture will need to leverage them. However, the API Factory will enable the simplification of these middleware layers through system APIs (target state Architecture).
Goals:
- Create APIs to reduce legacy complexity; bring value to the API consumer.
- Shorten response time for the business, reduce the time and cost to increase benefits for our customers.
- Expose some of these APIs to third parties as the FIRST bank in Mexico that does that to make new business models and experiences for our customers.
- Work with Architecture team to improve our customer's experience.
- Work in an agile and efficient way. Reduce rework and increasing quality to deliver faster to our customer and get feedback on what they want and prefer.
- MADE TO ORDER Produced or prepared specifically when projects requests API’s, so that the API can be develop as desired by the project who requested it.
- MADE TO STOCK This strategy is for produce API’s based on anticipated demand. As an accurate forecasting of demand is possible due to technology transformation, the make to stock strategy should be very cost effective.
Service: We are a service technological internal provider in charge of developing APIs to internal areas within the bank. We work under agile culture.
Project Description and Expected Outcomes
Context: Most of the people, who work in the DEF, are external workers provided by several providers; these people are usually Software Architectures, developers, Scrum Masters among others. The Citi policy indicates that when the internal areas have outsourced human resources, the area (DEF) is responsible for the onboarding process and not the Bank’s human resources area.
Internal Area: Digital Engineering Factory / Organizational Development
Onboarding/Off boarding processes: When we talk about the Onboarding/Off-boarding processes, we are talking about helping the new worker to understand internal processes to develop her/his job:
- Get the IT equipment: Laptop, desktop, ID.
- Access to Citi Sign on
- Access to all the Citi’s internal apps.
- Get a parking spot
- Locker
- Access to buildings
- Induction to the area, processes, functions, etc.
- Welcome to the team
- Team integration
Several issues within our organizational development.
Issues:
- In the DEF there are not people in charge for the onboarding and off boarding process when new collaborators (internal and external) start working or leave the company.
- We need to generate challenges to the teams in order to identify the team’s motivators and generate strategies that can improve people’s performance.
- We are constantly looking for motivated and committed collaborators that feel part of Citi, independently that they are not contractually part of it.
- Generate a collaboration and innovation environment.
- Develop a culture where the people feel that belong to the DEF.
- We do not have a person or a role, responsible for communicating the achievements, successes and business cases of the Digital Engineering Factory.
- Currently we are 372 employees (16 int. 356 ext.), which we do not identify in which team or structure they are.
We would like the Columbia MBA’s team to develop a strategy or organizational model that help us to define the internal organizational structure, stablish the onboarding –Off boarding processes, roles, create controls and processes that can be easily automated.
Deliverables:
- Priority: First 3 weeks: Create the Core competences.
- Define the strategy, roles.
- Responsibilities
- Processes
- Controls
- Automation
- Experience in Human Resources development.
- Communications
- Processes
- Innovation
- Automation
Citibanamex - Data & Analytics
Organizational Overview
Citibanamex is a major Mexican bank with more than 12 million customers and a ~40 percent market share in the Mexican banking system. Our goal is to position and maintain the Citibanamex brand and commercialize the products and services we offer. In order to achieve that, we focus on the customer needs and how we target and communicate products and services in the daily financial journey of our customers. The digital transformation plays an important role on delivering the WOW experience and especially on offering an omni-channel experience through UX / UI.
Project Description and Expected Outcomes
The MBA students would work directly on the Digital Analytics division. The area focuses on studying the digital behavior of customers through Data and analyzing opportunities in order to improve the customer experience. The area works closely with business and digital, as well as the customer service department. The business problem we are solving is increasing the digital sales of our products through different channels: ATM, Mobile app and web portal.
Delivering the right product, at the right time on the right channel has become the “Mantra” of the group and through agile user stories, we are re-writing our product offering to delight our customers.
Objectives & Deliverables:
Citibanamex is a major Mexican bank with more than 12 million customers and a ~40 percent market share in the Mexican banking system. Our goal is to position and maintain the Citibanamex brand and commercialize the products and services we offer. In order to achieve that, we focus on the customer needs and how we target and communicate products and services in the daily financial journey of our customers. The digital transformation plays an important role on delivering the WOW experience and especially on offering an omni-channel experience through UX / UI.
Project Description and Expected Outcomes
The MBA students would work directly on the Digital Analytics division. The area focuses on studying the digital behavior of customers through Data and analyzing opportunities in order to improve the customer experience. The area works closely with business and digital, as well as the customer service department. The business problem we are solving is increasing the digital sales of our products through different channels: ATM, Mobile app and web portal.
Delivering the right product, at the right time on the right channel has become the “Mantra” of the group and through agile user stories, we are re-writing our product offering to delight our customers.
Objectives & Deliverables:
- Creating and developing strategies to boost the positioning and commercialization of Citibanamex products and services through Digital Channels.
- Create recommendations and solutions to Management to implement with partners.
- Identity key stakeholders that create value to the business.
- Experience in cross functional teams
- Relationship management
- Business oriented solutions
- “Out of the box” thinking
- Digital focus
Citibanamex - Citibanking, Mass-Market Segment, Global Consumer Bank
Organizational Overview
CitiBanamex provides financial services to an array of customer in Mexico with more than 20 percent market share in all consumer-banking products. The Company offers consumer and corporate product such as consumer credit, mortgages, business loans, fund transfers, foreign exchange and trust services, as well as sponsors travelers checks, debit cards, and credit cards. Citibanamex has 15 million customers and is the #2 bank in Mexico in terms of revenue share.
Citibanking segment unit manages the strategy for 11.5 million customers in 3 sub segments: Mid Income, Mass and Marginal, in 3 age brackets.
Each sub-segment service model changes according to customer profile, needs and acquisition source:
Project Description and Expected Outcomes
We are evolving former segmentation to deliver differentiated experiences across defined customer journeys through the lifecycle needs of our customers, identifying pain points and key drivers to deliver de best user experience.
The proposed project is to define the enhanced new value proposition for under 30 customers identifying and defining target “Personas”, challenging BAU and proposing executable short and midterm actions, aligning and designing:
Objectives & Deliverables:
Young professional segment diagnostic. Definition:
CitiBanamex provides financial services to an array of customer in Mexico with more than 20 percent market share in all consumer-banking products. The Company offers consumer and corporate product such as consumer credit, mortgages, business loans, fund transfers, foreign exchange and trust services, as well as sponsors travelers checks, debit cards, and credit cards. Citibanamex has 15 million customers and is the #2 bank in Mexico in terms of revenue share.
Citibanking segment unit manages the strategy for 11.5 million customers in 3 sub segments: Mid Income, Mass and Marginal, in 3 age brackets.
Each sub-segment service model changes according to customer profile, needs and acquisition source:
- Half of consumer banking customers jointly developed under the payroll service model within the Commercial and Corporate Bank ecosystems.
- 2.3 million young customers are the entry point for development and sourcing emerging affluent segments.
Project Description and Expected Outcomes
We are evolving former segmentation to deliver differentiated experiences across defined customer journeys through the lifecycle needs of our customers, identifying pain points and key drivers to deliver de best user experience.
The proposed project is to define the enhanced new value proposition for under 30 customers identifying and defining target “Personas”, challenging BAU and proposing executable short and midterm actions, aligning and designing:
- Best product offering fit/sequence.
- Preferred channel use.
- Delivery and post-sale service.
- Preferred promotional activity, rewards and communication.
Objectives & Deliverables:
Young professional segment diagnostic. Definition:
- Strategic guidelines.
- Value proposition.
- Initiative road map.
- KPIs.
- Leading Digital/ecommerce background.
- Innovation methodology and project Management knowledge.
- Strategic Consulting.
- Retail and UX design experience.
- Would prefer students that what to build a startup and are disruptive, challenging current business models.
Learning opportunities and benefits
- Explore a new industry and role as part of the career planning process.
- Explore a business challenge on a global scale.
- Complete a paper or recommendation for the sponsor for academic credit.
Eligibility and how to apply
To participate, students must be receiving credit for their projects by working with a faculty member on an Independent Study as per OSA guidelines.
For the pilot Fall 2018 semester, we recommend second year MBA students apply. Please apply as a group of 3-4 students. Applications are due September 7th at 12:00 pm. Students should submit a statement of interest and resumes for all team members to chazen@columbia.edu. Please identify the project you are interested in; you may list multiple projects ranked by order of interest.